I really like the idea of searching for keywords to unlock new information, it really immerses you in the role of the P.I.! But I have to say that I wish there was a way to see which words are actually keywords that you can search. I spent 10-15 mins entering various keywords from the notes and only got 4 that returned anything useful. I would love to see the rest of the game, but can't seem to get past the first part because I couldn't find the information I need. Maybe highlighting the keywords that will give you results will help?
Viewing post in Notes jam comments
I think one of my biggest mistakes I think is that I didn't number the notes, which made it harder to know where to start, another one is that if you search a someone's first name without their last name you won't get anything (which makes sence irl, but I should have told the player so).
A general hint I'm gonna give is that all of the keywords are names. (people, places, etc)
Personally I don't think not numbering the notes isn't a big deal since there's only four and there's not a lot in them. I eventually did figure out that you had to search the full names, and got to what I think is a clue to decode the Damion note in his latest post. Unfortunately I'm not the best at puzzle solving so I got stuck there. Or maybe I'm overthinking it.
One mistake I've made in making my games is assuming the player will come to the same conclusions I did from the same information, so a hint that was obvious to me was confusing to the player. A general rule of thumb I've heard is that if it's a little difficult for you the developer, it's too hard for the player. I hope this helps!